Eddie Braben was Morecambe and Wise's secret weapon | Television & radio | The Guardian TV and radio blog Eddie Braben was Morecambe and Wise's secret weapon The Thick of It, Veep and Peep Show writer Simon Blackwell on how the beautiful rhythms of Braben's jokes made him the comedy writer's comedy writer Simon Blackwell Tuesday 21 May 2013 10.06 EDT First published on Tuesday 21 May 2013 10.06 EDT Pinterest Eddie Braben's work for Morecambe and Wise ranks among the best and funniest of any British comic writing because in many ways it defines it. Braben's rhythms are the quintessential rhythms of British comedy – the comedy of bathos. Eric and Ernie began their careers trying to imitate the smart cross-talk and rapid one-liners of US double acts such as Abbott and Costello. This is still evident in much of their 1960s work, scripted by Dick Hills and Sid Green.

But it's Braben's tumbling lines, with Eric puncturing the pomposity of Ernie, or their celebrity guests, that we think of when we recall probably the most-loved comedians of the last 50 years. When Eric, as the Duke of Wellington, lies on a bed with Vanessa Redgrave's Empress Josephine: ERIC: Would you like something to warm you up? VANESSA: (Seductively) I would very much. ERIC: Good, I think I've got some extra-strong mints in my greatcoat. Or in a sketch with Dame Flora Robson, when Eric offers her some impressive-looking wine: ERIC: I can recommend it — it's the '83. DAME FLORA: 83? ERIC: Yes – 83 bottles for fifteen and nine. The rhythm of Eric's line there, the cascade down to "fifteen and nine", that's the Eddie Braben rhythm. And it's a beautiful thing.

Braben encouraged Morecambe and Wise to do sketches where they shared a double bed, to help cement their transformation away from Abbott and Costello and towards Laurel and Hardy – two idiots, one of whom doesn't think he is an idiot. But the innocence of this new dynamic allowed Braben to sneak through some far less innocent lines. In one of these bed sketches, Ernie is boasting to Eric about his family's art collection: ERNIE: My mother had a Whistler. ERIC: Now there's a novelty. Again, deflated pretension. But also, at that point, around 20 million people in a BBC primetime audience had a mental image of a whistling vagina. Scriptwriter behind the Morecambe and Wise television shows Published: 21 May 2013 Ernie Wise June Whitfield THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Ernie Wise, comedian, was surprised by Michael Aspel at Thames Television's Teddington Studios , after being lured there on the pretence of being interviewed about his autobiography. Ernest Wiseman, born in Leeds, entered show business at the age of eight when he began appearing with his semi-professional father in a music hall act known as Bert Carson and his Little Wonder.

He later developed a solo act which caught the attention of impresario Jack Hylton, who billed him as England's Mickey Rooney . In 1940 he formed a lasting friendship with another juvenile performer, Eric Batholomew. Encouraged by Eric's mother, Sadie, the friends started to develop a comedy double act, becoming known as Morecambe and Wise. They honed their act in variety theatres and on radio, and eventually found their niche on television - where their shows, particularly the Christmas specials, attracted millions of viewers and made them into a national institution. Their partnership lasted until Eric's death in 1984 and has been described as "the most illustrious, and the best loved, double act Britain has ever produced" Photographs of Ernie Wise This Is Your Life and an image showing the programme's seating plan from writer Eddie Braben's Morecambe & Wise Book (click images to enlarge) Gideon Chilton of the only active Morecambe and Wise web site on the internet - - discusses Ernie's career and the relevance of This Is Your Life... Ernie Wise, always half a star, was the subject of a This Is Your Life special in 1993.

Instead of the usual 30 minutes program Ernie was treated to an extended 45 minutes that was broadcast at the only time that would feel right, Christmas. Ernie was lead to believe he was filming for a television show and was bought in to the studio in front of some all too familiar curtains! In fact the surprise was almost spoilt when Ernie thought he had seen his cousin in the toilets. The surprise started with a troop of celebrity friends in top hat and tails singing and dancing their way down the stairs towards Ernie. “Lionel?” Ernie comments as Lionel Blair leads the group towards him. The curtains rise and This Is Your Life begins. The show was broadcast in 1993 and by this time Ernie had been without Eric for 9 years. They had been together since 1940 and not 1939 as is mentioned in the show - this is an often misquoted date. Their partnership had lasted over 40 years and been one of the most loved in UK entertainment. Faced with a life without Eric, Ernie had been keeping himself busy. He had been to Australia to do a 3 month one man show.

A guest spot in a US comedy had finally taken Ernie to Hollywood. A return to the West End in 1987 in the Broadway play “The Mystery Of Edwin Drood”. It had been a long time since his West End debut at the age of 13 in 1939! Ernie also starred in the comedy farce “Run For Your Wife” and traveled the world for charity dressed as Phileas Fogg. In between this he also managed to appear on programs such as Watch My Line and Countdown. Ernie also released a Christmas single called The Sunshine Song. 1990 saw Ernie release his autobiography “Still On My Way To Hollywood”. Shortly after Ernie was the subject of This Is Your Life. It is interesting that the superb Morecambe and Wise biography by Graham McCann says that Ernie agreed to appear on This Is Your Life. Did he know before hand? The guests on the show ranged from family members to associates from the past. The show very much centred on Ernie Wise and not Morecambe and Wise, although there is obviously a nod towards the partnership! People associated with Morecambe and Wise were present but as seated guests.

People such as John Ammonds their long time producer and Eddie Braben, Sid Green and Dick Hills, their writers. Faces from their shows also fill the seats. Who could forget the South Pacific tumblers! Although some of the main guests might not be familiar names they bring interesting stories. People who worked with Ernie before he was discovered and when he was a solo star, known as Britain’s Mickey Rooney! There is genuine sadness when Eric's death is mentioned and a wonderful ending with the final guest, Peter Cushing . Ernie continued to work in the following years, but would begin to slow down. Two strokes would bring about Ernie's retirement from show business, in 1995, on his 70th birthday. Ernie's last television appearance was in 1996 on a television show called Aunties All Time Greats - a program which honoured stars who had worked for the BBC. Hosted by Michael Parkinson , Ernie collected an award for the best double act. He was joined on stage by Joan Morecambe, Eric's wife. Scriptwriter Roy Bottomley recalls the experience of this particular edition of This Is Your Life in his book This Is Your Life: The Story of Television's Famous Big Red Book...

‘Bring Me Sunshine,’ sang Morecambe and Wise at the close of every show in a decade of making audiences roll in the aisles at Teddington Studios . And that was the number that boomed out when Ernie Wise walked into Studio Two on Boxing Day 1990, believing that Thames Television had lined up a retrospective interview about those unforgettable Christmas shows he and his late partner Eric Morecambe had appeared in. He could be forgiven for feeling a little puzzled. He told us later: had that really been his father-in-law coming out of the gents? (Ernie, knowing the studios like the back of his hand, had slipped Life’s ‘minders’ to pop to the loo on the ground floor, only a few feet from where our surprises were hidden.) If he was puzzled then, he was totally thrown when he walked into the studio to be greeted by a celebrity ‘chorus line’ with top hats and canes, among them Jilly Cooper , Gemma Craven , June Whitfield and Lionel Blair . Before he had time to recover, an Oscar-winning actress told how the former Yorkshire working-men’s clubs boy clog dancer had influenced her career with one of the ‘plays wot he wrote’.

She was Glenda Jackson MP. We showed the hilarious sketch in which she played Cleopatra. She had agreed to that appearance in the wake of some heavy stage roles. Seen in a new light as a talented comedy actress, she was cast in the hit Hollywood movie A Touch of Class with George Segal – and that role won her her second Oscar. An appearance with Morecambe and Wise influenced the life of newscaster Angela Rippon , too. We sprang her from her famous ‘leg-show’ song-and-dance routine. ‘Before that, everybody thought the BBC used to roll me around on casters,’ said Angela. Sir Robin Day recalled his 1975 Christmas Show with the pair. ‘It had always been my ambition to be a great music hall comedian like, say, Des O’Connor ,’ said the political pundit. Eric’s widow, Joan, made an appearance and told us how she had first met Eric when they were both in a show at the Edinburgh Empire. He always said the theatre should have a plaque outside: ‘Eric Morecambe Fell Here.’ programme details...

Broadcast date: Wed 26 Dec 1990 Broadcast time: 6.45-7.30pm Recorded: Wed 31 Oct 1990 Venue: Teddington Studios Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson - Nov 1986 Peter Cushing - Feb 1990 The gags never stopped | News | The Guardian The gags never stopped Share on Messenger Close Sid Green, who has died at the age of 71, partnered the late Dick Hills in one of the most prolific television comedy writing teams of the 1950s to 1970s. Sid James, Bruce Forsyth, Morecambe and Wise, Roy Castle, Freddie Starr and Michael Barrymore depended on them at various times. In the United States, singly or together, they wrote for Dick Cavett, Johnnie Carson and Bill Cosby. In the early days, comedy seemed to be the prerogative of writing duos such as Frank Muir and Denis Norden, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, Barry Took and Marty Feldman.

As Sid Green said at a writing school seminar in 1964, two heads were better than one, especially in the need for constant self-criticism. If what seemed a good joke to one partner didn't make the other laugh, it was probably not good enough. Though they later answered to a matey 'Sid' and 'Dick', this duo was at first billed, in rather scholastic fashion, as SC Green and RM Hills. In fact, they had met as pupils at Haberdashers Aske's in south London - where they wrote a school panto - and after war and post-war service Hills went on to teach English. Green, who had risen to the rank of captain in the army, had jobs in the iron-ore business, ICI and a furniture company. They started to bombard the BBC with speculative TV scripts, quite without success until they accepted the fact that the comedian was everything, and the writer - as Muir or Norden put it - merely his labourer. They tailored all their efforts to one performer, Dave King. The one-hour special that resultedwas a triumph for all concerned. Dave King departed, eventually, for other fields, while Green and Hills extended their studies to other artists.

Sid James was easy, the diffident Roy Castle more difficult, though they cracked it in the end. Eamonn Andrews's 1956 attempt to advance from panel games and This is Your Life into song and dance and comedy was a legendary disaster, but hardly their fault. Jewel and Warriss they bravely turned down as being too big and too much themselves to be scaled down to TV situation comedy. For Anthony Newley, a mysterious moody 'star' of the era, they devised The Strange World of Gurney Slade (1960), a remarkable, semi-surrealist format many years ahead of its time - if also, alas, of its audience. There followed what was probably the key attachment of their joint career, to Morecambe and Wise for that lovable pair's ATV series between 1961 and 1967. Hills and Green noted that what was special about them was a reversal of the usual Mutt and Jeff double act: the straight man (Ernie) had the crazy ideas and the comic (Eric) had to go along with them.

On prescription from this diagnosis Eric and Ernie certainly thrived, but in the trade there are those who believe that only when they switched to the BBC in 1968, with Eddie Braben taking over as writer, were they really launched to become the nation's favourites of all time. Hills and Green had meanwhile tried themselves out as a double act in Those Two Fellers (ITV 1967) which, obviously, they also wrote. Soon afterwards they were lured to America, contributing to all sorts of TV shows and occasionally furnishing material for visiting stars' Las Vegas appearances. Hills returned first, because he had a son liable for the draft, and the Vietnam war was dragging on. Green followed a year or two later and in 1978 had his first solo credit in Britain with Mixed Blessings, a gentle sitcom about a mixed marriage, with Christopher Blake and Muriel Odunton, which he derived from the real-life marriage of an old school-friend's son. While still serving in the army in Wales, Green had married a local girl, Margaret Holt, who survives him together with three daughters, Amanda, Sian and Megan, and three grandchildren.

The elders lived latterly in Frinton-on-Sea in Essex, which they discovered when Megan, an actress, was in summer season there. Green had been a spry little fly-half at Aske's, and retained a love of rugby football all his life. He also enjoyed golf and bridge, was a lightning solver of crossword puzzles and an after-dinner speaker in considerable demand. He could, says his daughter Amanda, extract the humour from any situation, without smut. "He never wrote a blue line in his life." Morecambe and Wise: The Whole Story - what time is it on TV? Episode 2 Series 1 cast list and preview. Morecambe and Wise: The Whole Story Video clips are automatically supplied by broadcasters and distributors. RadioTimes.com is not responsible for the clip's contents. Series 1-Episode 2 not currently available Add this to your watchlist to find out when it is available via broadcast or catch-up. Watchlist Review by Mark Braxton The concluding part of this heartfelt tribute celebrates the superstar years of Eric and Ern: the monster ratings, the game-for-anything guests (Bassey, Previn, Jackson, Keith) and vital collaborators.

We’re treated to sketches last seen in the 60s, discover important inspirations and hear the honest thoughts of writer Eddie Braben, Eric’s son Gary and dance-mad producer Ernest Maxin. People forget that Morecambe and Wise were a quartet on TV – writers Dick Hills and Sid Green appeared with the boys on screen, even after their move from ITV to the BBC. But after Eric’s first heart attack in 1968, Hills and Green left and Eddie Braben took over. It was a marriage made in comedy heaven. Looking for a way forward, the duo remembered what had made them in the first place, and brought the warmth of the theatre to the cold technical space of a TV studio. There’s a priceless story about a fretful Morecambe convinced the Nothing like a Dame routine wouldn’t work – Maxin’s mime of Eric’s face as he watched the final edit is especially moving. “He turned around,” adds Maxin, “he put his arms around me, gave me a big kiss and the glasses filled up with tears… with relief that it had worked!” There are some fabulous memory-joggers, too.

Remember Janet Webb, the mystery woman who took all the applause at the end of their early 70s shows, even though she’d done absolutely nothing to earn it? “Goodnight, and I love you all!” You’ll be gripped by every step of the story, and look around you at the end to see if you can spot a dry eye. Summary Dean Lennox Kelly narrates the concluding part of the documentary charting the comedy duo's rise to stardom. Eric and Ernie were anxious never to lose editorial control again after their disastrous TV series Running Wild, and their eventual huge success on television was due to them returning to their variety roots, from the mock stage and curtains to the constant references to old acts. Featuring restored colour footage from their BBC series. Morecambe and Wise (Creator) - TV Tropes Morecambe and Wise You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share "The play what I wrote" —Ernie Wise "I'm playing all the right notes — but not necessarily in the right order." —Eric Morecambe A legendary British comic double act, both of whom got OBEs.

Consisted of Eric Morecambe (John Eric Bartholomew, 14 May 1926 ï¿½ 28 May 1984), the dark-haired "funny man"; and Ernie Wise (Ernest Wiseman, 27 November 1925 ï¿½ 21 March 1999), the blond-haired " straight man ". They met as teenagers and learned their skills as a Vaudeville double-act during the 1940s and 50s, so by the time they got to be on TV, they were primed for success — but didn't get it. Their first TV show Running Wild (1954) suffered from what in hindsight was Early Installment Weirdness , and an early newspaper gag went " Definition of TV: the box in which they buried Morecambe & Wise ". Morecambe, the more anxiety-ridden of the two, carried the cutting in his wallet for the rest of his life, as a sort of portable Motivational Lie .

The duo went back to live performance for seven years, before landing a second TV show on the British commercial network ATV, Two of a Kind (1961-1968). This was better-written and made them famous, including a memorable episode where they rubbed up against The Beatles , but there was more to come. In 1968 the writers of Two of a Kind, Dick Hills and Sid Green, quit the show and it was widely felt within British TV that Morecambe and Wise were finished. However, a BBC executive hooked them up with a gifted scriptwriter named Eddie Braben who understood them better than any previous writer, and The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968-1977) was the result. Full of classic sketches and celebrity guests, and with the central dynamic between the duo brilliantly retooled by Braben, it made them more popular than ever before. A running gag was that Ernie considered himself a talented playwright and would ask the guests to take roles in the latest "play what I wrote". This allowed them to do spoofs of famous plays and films, playing Eric and/or Ernie's Large Ham tendencies for maximum funny.

Christmas editions of the show earned the highest viewing figures in British TV history up to that point: 20 million people are estimated to have watched their 1977 Christmas special, making it in turn an integral part of A Very British Christmas . The story goes that the National Grid had to prepare in advance for almost everyone in Britain putting on the kettle at the same time after it finished. The show's success made the duo into national treasures. The Morecambe & Wise Show had a Channel Hop to commercial TV in 1978, but Braben was left behind, and while the later version of the show contained many classic moments, the duo's final work was in general less brilliant than their 1970s peak. Morecambe died in 1984, from a fatal heart attack after a public performance. Wise died in 1999. Both of their deaths were front-page news. YMMV tropes are here . The "Andrew Preview" sketch, origin of Eric's page quote. Penelope Keith also did it to Eric, referring to him as "Derek Moron". Affectionate Parody : All of their parodies really, but particularly the musical numbers.

Anachronism Stew : Often Played for Laughs , such as having modern technology and pop culture references in the sketches set in the past. For example, one sketch has Lady Hamilton ring up Admiral Nelson on the phone during the Battle of Trafalgar. Aside Glance : Eric played this straight, as you'd expect from an old-school variety performer, but once the duo were on TV he also devised a way to turn it Up to Eleven : while someone else was talking, he would sometimes glance into another camera, turn to face it, and then just beam foolishly at it without saying anything. After a while Ernie would join him, beaming over his shoulder, and if there was anyone else on stage at the time they would eventually join in too, for as long as Rule of Funny permitted, until they would all go back to the dialogue. Banana Republic : The setting of their early film The Magnificent 2. Berserk Button : Don't ever suggest that Eric is playing all the wrong notes. Butt Monkey : Des O'Connor in any of his appearances.

In the Hills & Green era, Eric tended to be the Butt Monkey of the duo but Braben cleverly reinvented the duo's dynamic, removing Ernie's Mean Boss tendency and turning him into a Ditzy Large Ham ; Eric, in turn, acquired jester and Stoic Woobie tendencies, the latter exemplified in the "Singin' in the Rain" sketch (actually not written by Braben) in which Ernie dances happily while Eric gets wetter and wetter. The role of Butt Monkey was given to their guests, who put up with endless humiliation in the name of funny . Eric and Ernie actually ended up becoming the Butt Monkey in the tap-dancing sketch where they are repeatedly obscured by their backing dancers. Call Back : Peter Cushing worked on one of their shows in 1969 which led to a running joke that he was never paid. All told he appeared on the show about six times, but didn't actually get "paid" until 1980. This is also something of a Brick Joke as when he finally does receive payment, he just shouts, "Paid! At last!" without any reference to having been on the show before.

Catch Phrase : Ernie had "the play what I wrote", Eric had "This boy's a fool!"; "What do you think of it so far? Rubbish!" [with the last word being spoken by an improvised ventriliquist's dummy], and more. One of the most famous derived from a sketch. Ernie pointed out that Eric was going bald and suggested he got a wig, telling him, "Some of your best friends have wigs and you'd never know it." Eric immediately assumed Ernie meant himself and tried to pull his hair off. For the next twenty years, Eric would interrupt whatever they were doing to stare at Ern's hair and comment, "You can't see the join!" Whenever somebody spoke outside of Eric's vision and he was looking at somebody else he'd say: "You said that without moving your lips!" Corpsing : Many contemporary critics noted how Eric essentially seemed exempt from the usual rules on this—he would regularly laugh at his own jokes and smile when he or Ernie messed up a line.

The reason seems to be the 'domestic' dynamic Eddie Braben gave the pair with his flat sketches, letting their real friendship shine through—so the audience accepted Eric laughing at his own jokes the way a witty friend would in a Real Life conversation. On the other hand, in the "Grieg Piano Concerto" sketch, while Eric, Ernie and André Previn all play their parts completely seriously, in the background you can see the orchestra's musicians struggling and failing to keep a straight face. Credits Gag : A common feature when introducing a parody sketch (such as the Neopolean sketch and Anthony and Cleopatra) was to play with the names, saying Actor A was actually played by a second actor and saying that actor was played by a cat who was played by a completely different actor. Example. Eric: You've only got a little dad, have you? As time went on, Ernie & Eric's idiot/bigger-idiot relationship became so strong that the role of Deadpan Snarker was actually handed to their guests; in the Grieg Piano Concerto sketch, Andre Previn is very much the Only Sane Man , complete with Death Glare as Eric's behaviour drives him higher and higher up the wall.

The Dog Bites Back : Given all the hassle Eric and Ernie put Des O'Connor through, this had to happen eventually. Eric and Ernie, after causing a lot of trouble during World War I, are sentenced to be shot by a firing squad. They're led to the place of execution, and the sound of shots ring out. We then pan down to see who the shooter was... Des O'Connor: *Laughs Maniacally, holding a rifle* There is a very significant shift in tone and format from the Hills and Green-written to the Eddie Braben-written series. Several sketches in the Hills and Green era have the two writers playing a role. Initially Eric and Ernie were confused by the presence of the Lady Who Comes Down At The End, only later smiling and nodding as though her interruption is completely expected. Arthur Tolcher did an actual segment on the show playing progressively smaller harmonicas before accidentally swallowing the last one, prior to the Running Gag of him randomly appearing and starting to play only to be brushed off with 'Not now, Arthur'.

Originally, Eric was the idiotic Butt Monkey and Ernie was the straight man with a Mean Boss trait; when Braben took over writing, he made Eric the straight man and made Ernie a ditzy, egotistical ham. Embarrassing First Name : Eric was always claiming that the "Des" in Des O'Connor was short for "Desperate", "Desert", etc. Grand Staircase Entrance : This was sent up when the boys did a big Hollywood-style entrance with their guest, Penelope Keith . Only to discover the staircase set had not been completed and ended abruptly ten feet up. The orchestra stopped playing and they had to scramble down the supporting framework underneath the staircase, the bits TV viewers are not normally intended to see. The sight of the six-foot tall Miss Keith struggling down the scaffolding in a tight evening dress, aided by the two comics in top hat and tails, was hugely entertaining. In a reprise of this gag, Penelope falls off the back of the set from the top of the stairs whilst making another entrance. Heterosexual Life-Partners : To the point of sharing a bed . Morecambe was initially dubious about the bed-sharing but agreed to do it on condition that he could have his pipe .

Mickey Mousing : The aforementioned Breakfast Sketch, in which Eric and Ernie making breakfast is synched to "The Stripper". Newscaster Cameo : Trope Codifier . Prior to Morecambe and Wise, newscasters had generally been considered dignified and distant figures in British television. Their number with Angela Rippon started to change this, but it really took off when almost every British newscaster at the time starred with them in "There Ain't Nothing Like A Dame". This started a tradition, which still survives today, of the newscasters indulging in a massive cross-channel crossover musical number, usually for Comic Relief . No Fourth Wall : Obviously, because show was mostly them on stage facing an audience. During the "Singin' in the Rain" sketch, a very wet Eric is being ignored by Ernie so turns to the camera and says, "I'm wet through, folks!" Obfuscating Stupidity : There are a number of hints that Eric is in fact the more intelligent member of the partnership but he acts dumb in order not to disappoint Ernie's intellectual pretensions. Ernie: [reading from his latest play]' "Rocky felt a tingle of excitement as his executive jet touched down in Amsterdam.

It was his first visit to Italy. " Eric: [briefly looks away, grimaces, turns back; encouragingly] That's knockout, that, Ern. Oop North : They were from there and proud of it. The Perfectionist : Both of them, but Morecambe was notorious for it, especially at the peak of their popularity in the 70s. All those supposed ad-libs, aside glances , even the corpsing? All meticulously rehearsed. Morecambe himself was not the only one to think that his obsession with perfection had something to do with his heart trouble. Producer John Ammonds was also like this. As Eddie Braben put it, "if you sent him a Christmas card, he'd send it back with a note asking for a rewrite". Perspective Magic : After one too many jokes at his expense, Des O'Connor storms onto the show , furious. Eric and Ernie agree they'll do a big musical number to make it up to him. Cue all three of them in top hat and tails dancing down a long staircase... at which point Des's section of the staircase appears to make him vanish. Mission accomplished!

Real Song Theme Tune : The end credits of their shows were played over them doing a song-and-dance act to the standard "Bring Me Sunshine". Repeated Take Thats at Des O'Connor. Morecambe pretending to throw an invisible object in the air and "catching" it in a paper bag. Celebrities shown working in menial jobs with the line "I worked with Morecambe and Wise, and look what happened to me." There were two semi-regular Once an Episode Big Lipped Alligator Moments : harmonica player Arthur Tolcher would randomly rush on and start to play, only for Eric or Ernie to kindly brush him off with 'Not now, Arthur'; and at the end of many episodes, the " Lady who comes down at the end " (played by Janet Webb) appears to deliver a monologue about her little show, while Eric and Ernie smile and nod along. Ernie's terrible plays. Ernie's height ("he's only got little legs"). Eric would often tell Ernie to stand up when he was already standing. Eric's Cloudcuckoolander tendency to refer to guests as though they were the other gender : e.g.

addressing the young and rather Bifauxnen Glenda Jackson as "young sir". Eric would often look at one person when a second person behind him said a line and he would say "You said that without moving your lips!" to the first person. He would turn to face the second as the first spoke and say "You can do it as well!" "What do you think of it so far?" "Rubbish!" Scenery Porn : Parodied, specifically the glitzy sets of 70s variety shows. In one sketch, Eric, Ernie and guest star Penelope Keith , smiling in immaculate evening wear, elegantly descended a huge flight of stairs as the orchestra played, only to find that it ended with a long drop still to go, so that they had to climb awkwardly down to ground level. This was a Shout-Out to an earlier sketch, in which the three of them had gone to the top of the stairs, only for Keith to fall off the back .

Shirley Bassey began a musical number on a revolving stage with rotated her into view, and then out of view again because Eric & Ernie as the stagehands had forgotten to stop cranking the revolve ; they looked up, saw the cameras, and furiously cranked in the opposite direction to bring her back again. Bassey then descended the steps to the studio floor, still singing, only for the heel of her shoe to break the bottom step and get caught in it. Eric & Ernie crawled out to investigate, and fixed the problem by removing Bassey's foot from her shoe and giving her one of Eric's boots . The Scrooge : Ernie's other major characteristic besides being a bad playwright. Early Installment Weirdness / Characterisation Marches On : In one early Hills and Green-penned routine it's Eric who's the mean one (recycling last year's Christmas cards and sending them to people this year) and Ernie who complains about it. Ernie: I'll be doing Singin' in the Rain. Eric: Oh, Gene Kelly did that very well... Ernie: Yes, well, I'll do it that little bit better, won't I?

Again, when Ernie was welcoming Lulu onto the show in effusive tones: Ernie: Oh, Lulu, you're one of my biggest fans. Special Guest : One every episode, several in the Christmas specials—not counting the more numerous music spot guest singers/bands. Producer John Ammonds was famous for being able to get anyone as a guest star, no matter how big a star they were or how 'refined' their usual work was; writer Eddie Braben was half convinced he had a collection of blackmail photographs on the entire membership of Equity. His only failure was when he couldn't get Prince Charles, and even then apparently Charles was willing but the Palace vetoed it as too risky. After a while, the show was so big and beloved that the biggest stars were queuing up to do it. Spiritual Successor : To Laurel and Hardy , of whom they were fans.

Straight Man and Wise Guy : They started out playing this straight, with Ernie as a bossy straight man and Eric as a ditzy wise guy, but although it made them famous they didn't really hit their stride until writer Eddie Braben inverted the trope, making Ernie a pompous would-be all-round entertainer and Eric his affectionately snarky but idiotic straight man . The result, as critic Kenneth Tynan observed, was that 'Ernie' was a comedian who wasn't funny, while 'Eric' was a straight man who was funny. Stylistic Suck : Ernie's plays. Ernie in-universe was absurdly prolific, described as writing dozens of plays every day, which both explains and fails to explain why they were rubbish: he didn't spend enough time on each one, but on the other hand he wrote so many that you'd have thought he'd get better at it . Surreal Humour : Not a major focus of their work but glimpses of it often showed up. For example, one episode began with Ernie asking for his violin, being handed a saxophone, nodding thanks and then being about to 'play' it with a violin-bow before being interrupted by Eric.

This part of their humour was a major influence on Reeves and Mortimer . Take That : Most often at Des O'Connor as noted above, but occasionally aimed at other comedians such as Max Bygraves and Jimmy Tarbuck Eric: Why don't you send that joke to Jimmy Tarbuck? Ernie: Do you think he'd use my material? Eric: Why not? He uses everyone else's. Earlier in their career they were often compared to rival comedy duo Mike & Bernie Winters. Morecambe & Wise were friendly with them, but it didn't stop Morecambe coming out with a lethal snark at their expense: Interviewer: Who do you think you'd be if you weren't comedians? Morecambe: Mike and Bernie Winters. Eric Morecambe, comedian : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide Eric Morecambe Real name:John Eric Bartholomew Probably the best-loved comedy star Britain has ever produced, Eric Morecambe owed his success to his mother Sadie's determination that he should make something of his life. When he was growing up in Morecambe, Lancs. she took work as a waitress to raise funds for his dancing lessons.

In 1939 - the same year he changed his name – he won an audition with impresario Jack Hylton as part of a talent competition, at which he won a place in a revue called Youth Takes A Bow at the Nottingham Empire. It was there that 13-year-old Eric became friends with 14-year-old Ernie Wise (born Wiseman) and, with Sadie's encouragement, started to develop a double act. They temporarily split when they began their National Service during World War II. Wise served in the Merchant Navy, while Morecambe was a Bevin Boy: conscripted to work in a coal mine. In 1952, Morecambe married Joan Bartlett and they would go on to have three children together. After the war Morecambe and Wise reformed their stage act, and became a hit on the variety circuit – but their first foray into TV, 1954's Running Wild, was considered a flop. The People's TV critic famously wrote: 'Definition of the week: TV set = the box they buried Morecambe and Wise in’ Morecambe carried the cutting in his wallet for the rest of his life.

The failure sent them back to the stage, where they refined their act. Three years later they hosted a weekly TV variety series called Double Six, which helped restore their reputation, and in 1961 Lew Grade offered them a series for London’s ITV station ATV, pairing them with Frankie Howerd's writers Sid Green and Dick Hills. Although the series started poorly, it developed more into a reflection of their stage personas and introduced catchphrases such as 'Get out of that!' and 'More tea Ern?' as well as Morecambe's famous paper bag trick. It also introduced guest stars to the format, who would be gently ribbed by Eric. During the Sixties they made three films - The Intelligence Men (1965), That Riviera Touch (1966), The Magnificent Two (1967) – although none of them gave them the big-screen success they craved. In 1968, after six ATV series, they left for the BBC, which had offered to make the shows in colour.

But after the first BBC series 42-year-old Morecambe suffered his first heart attack, in the early hours of November 8, as he was driving back from a show to his hotel near Leeds. After leaving hospital, Morecambe gave up his 40-a-day cigarette habit in favour of a pipe, took six months off and cut back on his live work. During his recuperation, Hills and Green, believing he would never work again, quit as writers. John Ammonds, the show's producer, replaced them with Eddie Braben, who had just parted company with Ken Dodd . Braben further developed their characters, especially Wise's, to give him more depth than the traditional straight man – and introducing aspects such as them sharing a bed . Initially Morecambe objected, but Braben convinced them by saying that if it was good enough for Laurel and Hardy it was surely good enough for Morecambe and Wise. With Braben's help, their TV shows went from strength to strength, and their 1977 Christmas show attracted an incredible 28.4 million viewers.

But in January 1978, the pair controversially left the BBC for Thames Television, for a higher salary and, crucially, the chance to make movies through their Euston Films subsidiary. However, the move cost them their writer as Braben opted to remain at the BBC and, although popular, their ITV series never reached the dizzying heights of their BBC ones. Also, the film they made – Night Train to Murder took six years to complete, only being screened on TV after Morecambe's death, and was a commercial and critical flop. In January 1979, Morecambe suffered a second heart attack at home in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. After that, he worked alone as well as with his long-term comedy partner. In 1980 he played the Funny Uncle in an ITV dramatisation of the John Betjeman poem Indoor Games Near Newbury, and the 1981 cinematic follow-up Late Flowering Love. And he wrote a number of books: Mr Lonely, a 1981 tragicomic novel about a stand-up comedian, the Reluctant Vampire in 1982 and its sequel The Vampire's Revenge the following year.

Outside comedy, he was a keen football fan and a director of Luton Town Morecambe and Wise's final show together was the 1983 Christmas special for ITV. Five months later, Morecambe took part in a show hosted by close friend and comedian Stan Stennett at the Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. After his sixth curtain call, he walked into the wings and joked "Thank goodness that's over." He then collapsed, suffering a third and final heart attack. Eric Morecambe died in Cheltenham General Hospital at 4am, aged 58. A statue by sculptor Graham Ibbeson, was unveiled by the Queen at Morecambe on the seafront at Morecambe in July 1999.

Question: Who replaced 'Sid & Dick' as the main writer for Morecambe and Wise?
Answer: Eddie Braben